


You Were All Scraped Knees & Elbows

by FlowerChiild



Category: Coraline (2009)
Genre: A series of oneshots, F/M, Post-Movie, Wybie/Coraline, Young Love, just young dorks, like they should, who eventually fall in love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2018-12-23 09:17:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 9,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11986800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlowerChiild/pseuds/FlowerChiild
Summary: She stumbled around the wordloveall her life, but with Wybie, it came easy.





	1. Chapter 1

She watched with annoyance and mild embarrassment as her father tried to stuff thirteen candles on the birthday cake. They had it pre-ordered from a bakery, thank god, so that she wouldn't at least have to suffer from Charlie Jones' horrendous baking skills on her birthday. Wybie snickers from his spot at the kitchen table. The cake itself was pretty small, just enough for four of them and a little bit more for the neighbors if they wanted. Her dad was already ruining the frosting. 

"Why didn't you just buy the numbers one and three?" Coraline grumbled to her mother. "Dad's getting his nasty fingers in the cake."

"Coraline," Mel sent her a sideways glance. "We bought you a cake and presents and are giving you a wonderful birthday. No party, like you wanted. Can't you just be a little bit more grateful?"

"Happy Birthday!" Her father sang, swinging around the table with the cake on a platter. The dessert almost slid off from the momentum, knocking off the unfortunate cake cutter and splattering vanilla frosting on Coraline's cheeks. She flushed pink.   
" _Dad!_ " 

"Don't be such a slump, Jonesy." Wybie reached over the table and wiped the vanilla off her face using his thumbs. Her skin tingled where she felt his fingernail scrape off the frosting.   
"I'm not a slump," She humphed, crossing her arms and slouching into her chair. "Just wish birthdays weren't a big deal." 

The cake was fantastic, although Coraline made it a point to sourly scarf down two slices. Her mother had gotten her a beginner's makeup kit and some nail polish, her father had presented her with a book dedicated to the paranormal. Grandma Lovat had sent her little doll versions of herself and Cat, which had made her involuntarily shudder and shove behind a pillow. Wybie had gotten her a pet slug, which sat idly in a container filled with dirt. 

She named it Sudsy.


	2. Chapter 2

She noticed suddenly one day that Wybie had grown into his ears. 

Somewhere between eleven and fourteen, she mused, he had started growing up. Sure, he had gained a couple inches, and his hands didn't absolutely dwarf his arms anymore, but she for some reason never anticipated his ears actually being proportionate to the size of his head. Coraline had only noticed when his hair grew longer and curled around his earlobes, hiding the dumb piercing he had given himself when he was twelve and the freckle that resided right next to it. 

A tingle hummed at the bottom of her belly at the very realization of it. She curled into herself, burying her face in the pillows and clenching her teeth. They were just _ears_ , the least expected thing about Wybie that managed to askew her disposition. Coraline subtly missed the childish visage of his face that came with his large ears, something pure and innocent that _wasn't_ the Beldam, something that she could starkly contrast against her childhood nightmares. 

She rolled over and huffed, examining the open space of her room, where her mice ran in their wheel(she had actually bred the original that had been given to her by Bobinsky, bless their little mouse souls as they ran up in little mouse heaven), and the wide arrange of little trinkets and objects of interest she had found while on her weekly rides with Wybie on the bike. On her bedside table, she watched Sudsy lazily make his way up the side of his tank - you'd be surprised how fat they can get, and how long banana slugs can live up to - and once again was reminded of the tingle low in her stomach that had shaken her up so much in the first place. 

"Oh - _god_." Coraline groaned to herself, thinking briefly back to her eighth grade health class, where the teacher had wistfully explained the workings of masturbation, and how lust worked, and how Wybie's flushed face looked as he nervously wrung his hands together on the desk. 

She wasn't _in the mood_ , was she? 

Holding back and shriek of mortification and embarrassment, Coraline jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom down the hall, where she promptly splashed her face with cold water in the sink and glared at her reflection, flustered and pink, in the mirror. 

She hated growing up.


	3. Chapter 3

It was the summer before their freshman year in high school, and the temperature was soaring, leaving the August humidity to be trapped by the woods surrounding the Pink Palace and Wybie's house. They had hopped onto Wybie's scalding metal bike, forgoing safety precautions because it was so hot, and sped off into the forest, where a secret lake lay waiting with beckoning, cool waters. Wybie had adorned just his swim trunks and some beat up old converse, with Coraline on the back in his humongous shirt, a bathing suit, and flip flops. She groaned uncomfortably, because wearing Wybie's black shirt hadn't been the smartest idea, as she could feel the sun burning the back of her neck. 

Wybie's back was sweaty, scattered with blotches of acne, but his skin was soft, so she rested her cheek just beneath his shoulder blade anyway. 

The lake had come into view, and they had wasted no time flinging off any remaining articles of clothing before submerging themselves in the water, both letting out groans of relief. They had found a particularly large rock underwater that jut out from the lake itself, and Wybie had clamored to the top before admiring the view. She noticed his back then, ripples of water running down the expanse of his skin. His shoulder blades were prominent, as were the muscles in his shoulders - probably from lifting and maneuvering his hefty bike around for weekly tune-ups - but it was the dip that indicated where his spine should be that had caught her attention. 

She had seen him shirtless countless times before - when she forced him to try on a knitted sweater in her bedroom last Christmas, and every single time she's woken him up because he was late for school and he scrambled to get dressed in front of her. This time, for whatever reason, her eyes were captivated by every single rivet and contour his back presented, which in turn made her chest feel light and her stomach flip. 

Ignoring the heat that was spreading up her neck, she too climbed the rock and promptly pushed him off of it, watching him sputter and flail in the air before landing in the water.

"Hey!" He called up to her, splashing her legs and stomach with water as revenge. "Why I outta - just you wait, Jonesy!"

They spent the rest of the afternoon laughing and swimming, and he had let her sit on his shoulders because the seaweed near the deeper end grossed her out. When the air became cooler and the sun was setting, they rode back to her house and watched cheesy horror movies while snacking on nachos and pizza. Even when he fell asleep on her couch, his legs sprawled out over her lap, she said nothing, and ignored the way his nose twitched when he dreamed.


	4. Chapter 4

They rode his bike to school even in the winter, which sucked, but Coraline was grateful that he sacrificed the extra amount of gas to get her to class everyday. She never liked the bus anyway, preferring Wybie's concentrated company over the rowdy crowd that came with public transportation. Plus Wybie was likened to that of a human radiator, so she managed to brave the cold a little bit easier with him. 

She remembered when they drove into the Ashland High School parking lot for the first time, gawking seniors watching two freshman ride in on a clunky, overly loud hunk of metal on wheels and take the first available slot. Now, they're referred to as the Junkyard Duo, not that either of them minded. Wybie was proud of his bike, and Coraline was proud of the fact that he was prideful of himself. Sure, if the bike had been hers, it would have been coated in fresh paint every six months or so, but the rust-stained wheel plates and cloudy headlight were inexplicably _Wybie_ , so she kept her mouth shut and sat on the worn driver's seat behind him everyday. 

Coraline had stood outside, leaning slightly against the cold metal of the bike that chilled her thighs through her tights, checking her watch and grumbling about her best friend's tardiness. He was hardly ever late, because he usually was just as desperate to get home as she was, and he wouldn't usually leave her out to freeze her ass off in the cold. It had been at least fifteen minutes since she last saw Wybie digging through his locker for homework, just as he was promising to meet her outside in five minutes, which was just about the amount of time it took to walk through the snow across campus and to their usual parking spot. At this point she was debating on leaving and searching for him herself, but the last thing she needed was him showing up to her not being there, and sending both of them on a wild goose chase, or worse - him assuming she got a ride and leaving her on school grounds (which was dumb, because she's never gotten a ride from anybody but him, but he was a little dumb himself sometimes). 

Just as she was about to give up and risk them both running around in circles - at least the inside of the school was warm - she spotted Wybie's mop of unruly hair, along with the delicate, braided up-do of the most beautiful girl on the whole planet (or that's what Coraline thought - she touched her own dead blue ends out of insecurity then), Shay-lee Granger. She was just a few shades darker than Wybie was, but had even darker freckles that complimented the doe brown eyes that she had. Quite frankly, she was gorgeous, and that bothered Coraline. Shay-lee was nice, Shay-lee got good grades and was probably going to get homecoming queen. Shay-lee mingled with everyone from the cheerleaders to the theater troupe to the quiet computer programmers in the back of the class; she was the ultimate wholesome icon at Ashland High, and Coraline hated it. She once again told herself to stop acting like a jealous three-year old. It was nonsense. 

Wybie gave her a shy smile, like the doof he was, as Shay-lee laid a hand on his shoulder and bid him a goodbye. He then looked up and met Coraline's eyes as she leaned on the bike, trying to look as casual as she could with the unpleasant brick settling in the pit of her stomach. 

"What'd you do- makeout with her in the janitor's closet? Jeez, Wybs, you could have given me a heads up. I waited out here for like, ever."

"Sorry, she had a question about the math homework." He sheepishly looked at her, putting on his helmet and settling on the bike. Coraline situated herself behind him after clasping on her own headgear, rolling her eyes at his excuse.  
"For fifteen minutes? You don't just _answer a question_ for the most drop-dead gorgeous girl in America for fifteen solid minutes."  
"She's pretty, I guess." Wybie said simply, revving the engine and cutting off any further conversation for the time being. 

Coraline sighed and braced for the cold wind-speed from the bike, assuming that Wybie, even though he was almost sixteen at this point, just didn't _get_ girls yet. She wondered if he ever would. 

Wybie dropped her off at her front steps, and as he rode away, she could still feel the tingle of his warmth radiate throughout her body, despite the cold.


	5. Chapter 5

He sputtered in her direction when she first exited her house that morning. It was cold, his balls felt frozen to the seat of his bike, it was early, and Coraline was wearing makeup. She skipped over to his bike, swung her leg over the side, and obscured her face with her helmet. He was in too much of a shock to really register her foot kicking the back of his shin in order to get him going, but her yelling in his ear was enough to get him muttering an apology and speeding off down the road. Wybie wondered _why_ she was wearing makeup - it wasn't like he hated it or anything, she looked pretty. But Coraline never wore makeup, and she was never pretty. 

_Pretty._

"Shove off, Wybster." Coraline shoots a confused expression his way while trying to open his locker. "Ever heard of personal space?"

Wybie shuffles backwards at that. He didn't even realize how close to her he was standing, but he also didn't realize until they stepped into the school hallway that she was wearing perfume. Usually, she smelled like grass and the incense from her room. She used to poke fun of anybody that dared walk into the perfume section at the mall. The scent of daises and springtime wafted under his nose. 

"Oh, shit - sorry." He wasn't sure if he should comment or ask. There's the sickening realization that she could be doing it for attention, maybe hoping to catch the eye of some mysterious suitor. Wybie went over all of the possibilities, but he and Coraline never really talked about that stuff. Sure, he's had crushes, but as far as he knew, Coraline was just Coraline, and she didn't need romance. Not once has he ever seen her look at a boy for longer than she needed to. Girls? No, she would've told him. Besides, there was that one time during Fuck-Kill-Marry where she said she didn't swing that way. "Oh, um, movie night tonight? After work. I get out at six."

Mascara-enhanced lashes flicker in his direction and she meets his eyes. Her lips, which are blue, spread into a smile that shows her teeth. White against blue. He thinks of the sky. "Yeah. I've never watched Hellraiser, which is weird since we've watched every other horror movie possible. Maybe we can grab some pizza or mac and cheese." 

The bell rings. They go their separate ways. He doesn't see her again until second period. 

It's a silent study hall, so they both sit side-by-side on a nearby couch and wear earbuds. She's reading, and he's trying to work out his chemistry homework. The numbers are blurring together, because he can't stop picturing Coraline with other things he's never seen her wear before - dresses, heels, a pony tail, the color red. He looks up at her through the curtain of hair that's fallen in front of his face, safely observing aspects of her that suddenly seemed much more present than before. Have her freckles always been that dark?   
Why are her eyes extra-noticeable today? Greenish-brown, but they seemed extra sparkly for some reason. 

An hour and a half later, the bell rings, and he doesn't see her until six o' clock that night. 

He enters her house with boxes of mac and cheese in his arms, a bag of candy swinging from his curled fingers. There's a box of pizza on the floor of her room when he enters. Wybie drops his stuff, falls flat-faced on her bed, and ignores the lump under the covers. She shrieks. 

"Get off! You're heavy!"   
"Sup, Slump?" He mumbles. His nose is digging into some bony body part and it hurts, so he lifts his head and looks up at her. "Were you sleeping?"   
"I took a nap." She mumbles, pushing the blankets away and stretching her arms. The makeup is off.

Wybie can't help but notice how her freckles _still_ stand out, and her lips look a lot more pink now that she's removed the lipstick. She's a whole different kind of pretty without makeup, and that freaks him out. 

"What're you staring at?" Coraline hops off the bed, walking over to the case of DVD's in her room and looking for the Hellraiser copy. "Weirdo."

"Sorry, blanked out," is the only response he can think of. He crawls over to the pizza box and leans against the base of her bed.

He doesn't say anything else.


	6. Chapter 6

"I don't get why Prom is such a big deal," Coraline huffed. "We get to go _twice_. A junior prom probably sucks, anyway." 

Edward Cranberry, the twig-looking kid of their grade, had asked Coraline to the junior prom during lunch. He created quite the spectacle - he got her _flowers_. All eyes were on the two of them, some snickering and cringing for her. Cranberry Kid had a reputation for being just plain gross; he was sixteen and still openly picked his nose. Not to mention, he had peed his pants earlier that school year during an altercation with Joshua, the school skin-head. He was outcast, just like Coraline was, not completely fitting in with any group of people, and so he must of assumed on this basis that it would be like the movies, where two weirdos went to prom together and fell in love. Boy, was he wrong.

Coraline already had her weirdo. He was currently still laughing at her, even though it was six hours later. She threw a pillow at him in annoyance, narrowly missing a cup of orange-flavored soda. Guiltily, she looked over at the vase of wilting flowers she had picked out of the trash after she had told Cranberry Kid that she wouldn't be his date. She wondered what it'd be like if she said yes, just to offer him some peace of mind. Not just anybody asked out Coraline Jones and got away with it. She felt bad this time, though, with everybody staring at him in wide-eyed shock. Her own embarrassment probably paled in comparison to his. For that, she avoided punching him in the nose. 

The sounds of the first-person shooter Wybie was playing drew her out of her reverie. The controller buzzed in his hands as a bomb exploded on screen, sending his character flying across the battle field. The soldier bounced off of the ground and the screen grew gray, displaying the big green letters that read _"YOU'RE DEAD."_

"Damn, that sucks." He grumbled, casually holding the controller out in her direction. "Your turn?"  
"I don't wanna play anymore," she rolled her eyes. Coraline eyed the clock and saw that it was almost seven. "We've been playing this for like, three hours. Can't we do something else?"  
"Uh, well," Wybie bit his lip and scratched his chin, leaning over the steep incline of his bed to check his video game shelf. "I've got zombies, Red Dead Redemption, and - Oh! Little Big Planet?"  
"Not inside, dumbass," She rolled her eyes, pushing herself from the mattress. She sauntered over to the window and pushed open the glass, looking over her shoulder to smirk at him. He made his confusion evident, but he shoved his feet into his boots anyway, and following her clumsily over his windowsill and out onto the grass. 

They strolled along the edge of the woods separating his house from the Pink Palace. It was still chilly outside, allowing for a full view of the sky with the lack of humidity. Out there, away from the bright lights of the town, the moon illuminated their path enough to go without a flashlight. Coraline whistled to no particular tune, Wybie looked for slugs and certain species of toad, and it felt like they were ten years old again. 

"Do you ever think of Her?" Wybie asked suddenly. "You know, of the Beldam?"  
Coraline stiffed immediately upon mention of the Other Mother. She worriedly look out into the forest, half-expecting to see button eyes and red lipstick. "No, Why-were-you-born," she snapped, "and quite frankly, I don't ever want to think of her. I hope she's dead and gone and never fucking coming back." 

A few minutes passed as they walked in silence. Wybie noticed her rigid posture, how she walked with uncertainty, anxiously looking around as if she was being followed. He reached out and brushed her knuckles with his fingers. The sudden contact caused her to scream, falling back into a bush. He burst out into laughter, looking at her flailing in the foilage, yellow and white striped tights kicking the air. A blue rain boot almost took him out via nose. Coraline sat up, glaring at him viciously as he threw his head back in a fit of giggles. It wasn't until he heard a hushed sob that he stopped laughing and looked down to see her _crying_ , something she rarely did. 

"Oh, no, Jonesy, I -"  
"Shut up!" She shouted at him. "You dick!"  
"I'm sorry, Coraline." Wybie knelt down and took her arms in his hands, lifting the two of them back into a standing position. "I wasn't thinking. I shouldn't have laughed."  
"Damn right, you shouldn't have laughed," She sniffled, wiping her nose with her hand. Coraline avoided his eyes, and he sighed, pulling her into a warm embrace he seldom shared with her. Neither he or Coraline were one for intimacy. 

They stood quietly. Coraline inhaled the scent of him, the smell of his musky workshop and dirt imprinted in his jacket. Slowly, she wrapped her arms around him, returning the hug. She noticed how thin he was, which was a mystery since the two of them both ate nothing but junk food. She focused on how much of his body she could feel beneath his coat, and wondered vaguely what he was thinking about. 

"I think," He spoke quietly, "that I might as well make it up to you by bringing you to prom."

In a matter of five seconds flat, she had moved away from him and sent her fist flying into his ribs. He lurched backwards with an _oough_ , cradling what surely would turn into a bruise. Coraline stood in front of him, both arms crossed, her nose scrunched up in distaste. 

"Could you be any cheesier?" She asked him. "What's next, gonna pull out a bouquet of roses?"  
"A simple _'no'_ would have sufficed, thank you," He grumbled, kicking the dirt. "Jeez."  
He started to walk away from her, angered and slightly humiliated, when she shouted after him. "Wait a second! I never answered you!"  
"You punched me!" Wybie hollered back at her. "I think that's a good enough answer!"

He tumbled to the ground when a sudden weight toppled onto his back. He was flipped so that he was staring at the sky, with Coraline sitting firmly on top of him, looking annoyed. "I was surprised."  
"That is not an excuse for punching me!"  
"I'm sorry!" She threw her arms up. "I'll go to prom with you! God!"  
"Fuck off, Cora - wait, what?" Wybie leaned on his elbows and stared up at her in awe. "You'll go to prom with me?"  
"Yes! Do you really have to make me say it twice?" She huffed. "And don't go making this a big deal, because it isn't. And you aren't allowed to touch my butt just because I'm your prom date."  
"Why -" Wybie sputtered, not sure how to answer her. Touching her butt? Coraline's butt was something he didn't think quite often about. The thought of somebody else touching her butt made him feel even weirder. "I'm not gonna touch your butt!" 

Coraline's phone buzzed in the pocket of her jean skirt, and she answered the call only to listen to her very exasperated mother, asking why she and Wybie had bothered to sneak out when it wasn't even that late yet, how his grandma was sure they had just vanished into thin air due to some otherworldly magic, and that they had to come home as soon as possible in order to convince her that they both were alive and well and not in the clutches of evil. 

The next day at school, when Coraline was asked why she didn't accept poor Cranberry Kid's promposal, she said it was simply because she already had a date.


	7. Chapter 7

Wybourne's other friends didn't like Coraline, and that was fine because she didn't like them one bit, either. She tried to give Wybie his space, reminding herself that she wasn't his only friend and he was allowed to mingle with other people. But these _nerds_ , to put it simply, disliked the fact that he had such a close bond with a girl. She often chortled back at that, saying the only reason they were upset was because they couldn't get a girl even if they tried, and that's talking romantically. She doubted anything of the female gender would pay them any mind, even if was just for friendship. That's how much of dicks they were.

"Go play that stupid game where you date a fake anime girl, and leave me alone." Coraline snapped in their direction. She had plopped down next to Wybie during lunch, about to ask him for help on chemistry homework when Andrew, who had a particularly strong distaste for her, made a comment just loud enough for his other geeklings to hear. The flock of them erupted in boyish giggles, making it a point to look at her while doing so. She had a strong urge to take off her sneaker and chuck it at one of them. 

"At least I can hold my temper." One of them jabbed at her. "Oh no, guys! I _looked_ at Coraline! I might get punched! Please don't let the angry lesbian get to me, God!"  
"First of all, you might wanna stop stuffing your brain with all that math mumbo-jumbo that you won't ever use after highschool. It's making your head bigger, and it's already half the size of this room. Second," Coraline tightened her fist around the water bottle in her hand, "learn better insults, jackass, or maybe I'll rearrange your teeth just for being such a spud."  
" _Coraline_ ," Wybie interrupted, hoping to redirect her attention elsewhere, "number four on this paper in wrong."  
"Yeah, right. You're just angry that you'll never get laid." Andrew chimed in, "There's a reason people call you a lesbian."  
"I'm not a lesbian."  
"Oh, my bad. It must suck not being wanted by either gender. I totally get it. I wouldn't want to be hurt on a daily basis, either."  
"Guys," Wybie said firmly, "stop it."  
"Nobody wants you either, four-eyes!" She stood in her seat, leaning over to Andrew's side of the table. "At least I don't masturbate to cartoons!"  
"Oh, I'm so scared! What're you gonna do, send me to the nurse's office because you can't face the reality that you don't get dick?"

There was a moment of silence where she just glared at him, only faintly aware of the rest of the cafeteria staring at the two of them. She calmly picked up her backpack and coolly replied, "I don't know, why don't you ask Wybie?" before stalking off, leaving her friend flustered and sputtering in response. The entire student body erupted into a field of roars and flabbergasted howls, all surprised at Coraline's sudden declaration. 

She ran down the hallway and threw herself into an empty library. Her being there technically wasn't allowed, since the entire school faculty was on lunch break. Coraline dug herself into a corner between bookcases, staring at various titles, not really reading them, trying really hard not to cry. She was very much aware of her track record at the school for being violent, and using her fist when she was embarrassed or angry. She didn't date, she never felt the need to when Wybie always made her feel supported and safe the same way any boyfriend could, and she was also aware this lead to rumors pertaining to her sexuality. She always told herself that it wasn't any of their business, but high school was one of the only places being gay could be turned into an insult, and so obviously the rumors bothered her when she was forced to face them head-on. Coraline never put a label on herself; she liked who she liked and if somebody fell in love with her harsh features then she'd be grateful. That shouldn't matter to anybody else but her.

The sound of the library door being forced open and slammed shut gained her attention. She heard boots shuffling along the carpeted floor, checking the nooks and crannies, and rows of books in the library. 

"Coraline!" Wybie's voice echoed off of the walls of the dim chamber. "Coraline, get out here!"  
"Go away, Wybourne," She replied quietly from her spot, hoping it wasn't enough to give away her location. Much to her luck, however, she heard footsteps quickly approaching her row. She dipped her head between her knees and hoped he'd just leave her alone. He didn't, though, because she heard him sit down across from her, his knees touching hers, a sign he wasn't about to budge. Coraline lifted her head only slightly and sheepishly met his eyes. His face seemed oddly still, something she found strange as she could usually read his expressions easily. She grew anxious as he continued to just stare at her. "What?"  
"Are you serious?" Was all he said, but the way it came out of his mouth was enough to tell her that he was angry. "That's all you have to say?"  
"Well what do you want me to say?" Coraline spoke louder this time, trying to maintain a nonchalant attitude about the ordeal, even though she totally just ran away from the whole situation like a coward.  
"Well, something else, considering you just lied to the whole school saying we fucked!" Wybie shouted at her. She flinched at the volume of his voice, which is something she rarely heard, and when it was directed at her was even rarer.  
"Oh, who cares?!" She threw her hands up in the air. "It's just sex! Everybody does it at least once in their lives, unless you're one of those weirdos like Andrew you hang out -"  
"That's not the _point_ , Coraline!" Out of pure fury, he slammed his fist into the bookcase next to them. The frame rocked from the impact of it. "It isn't your place to tell people shit like that!"  
"What's the big deal, Wybourne!?"  
"Because!" He gripped both of her shoulders tightly, bringing her forward in his direction, giving him the opportunity to bring his face closer to her's. "Maybe, just _maybe_ , I wanted it to be real if someone announced my sex life! And _maybe_ , I would have wanted it to _actually be you_!" 

Her breath must have hitched audibly. Coraline often had something to say no matter the situation, but he noticed her stunned silence and gulped. She saw his adam's apple bob in her peripheral vision. His hands still held onto her shoulders, almost as if he was afraid to let go. 

The sixth period bell shrieked, breaking the deafening silence. He let her shoulders go, pushing her back. Coraline's back hit the wall, allowing her to successfully process what he just told her. The lights of the library turned on, and he suddenly felt exposed under them. He stood up without looking at her, swinging his backpack over his shoulders and leaving her there, still sitting on the floor, staring at the spot where he was just a few seconds ago. 

Coraline heard the herd of students enter the library. She composed herself and lifted herself from the carpet slowly, bringing the straps of her bag to hang heavily from her shoulders. Everything seemed like it was in slow motion as she navigated her way to her next class. It was chemistry, and she hadn't even bothered to make the corrections to her homework. 

The teacher spoke, but to her it sounded like the nonsense you sometimes heard in those black and white cartoons, where the character's dialogue kind of sounded like the scales of a trombone. She was hyperaware of the stares from other classmates, all of whom had heard her very loud comment at lunch. She wondered what Wybie was thinking, if he was just as surprised at his declaration as she was. It didn't seem like he had meant to tell her that at all. Every time she blinked, she had the image of the two of them burned on the inside of her eyelids. The conversation they had behind the safety of the bookcases wouldn't stop replaying itself in her head. 

Coraline saw him leaning on his bike after school in the parking lot. He took one look at her and swung his legs over the engine, revving it up and flying out of the parking lot without her. A frustrated puff left her mouth. He did that specifically so she would see him do it. She took the path in the woods that would lead her back to the Pink Palace. The walk wasn't long, since it was a shortcut, but since it was early May, the poison-ivy grew over the trail and she got prickles stuck in the skin of her ankles and thighs. The entire time, she thought of Wybie. Was he angry now because of what she said at lunch, or because of what he said to her when they were alone? Still, that was no reason to ditch her without warning! 

That night she lay in her bed, staring up at the ceiling, ignoring the heat building between her legs at the very thought of the two of them. Angrily, she rolled around in her sheets, but when that didn't work, she climbed out of her window and sat on her roof, staring up at the stars and wondering if he was still awake. _Great, now I'm a sad, horny teenager, just like how they are in the books. How typical._

She pulled out her phone from the pocket in her pajama shorts. She re-read texts between the two of them, looking at saved and screenshotted pictures he had sent her while at work. What a goofball. Oh, god, she totally wanted to kiss him. How else does Coraline deal with these things? 

She typed out a text message that said _Fuck you_ , and promptly pressed send.


	8. Chapter 8

After successfully crying into his pillow for two nights consecutively, Wybourne Lovat was finally getting over the feeling of embarrassment he felt whenever he walked the halls of his local high school. Call him sensitive, but Wybie was firm on keeping his personal life behind closed doors. Sure, Coraline didn't really _know_ that, but a normal person should already know that shouting out the details of their sex life wasn't appropriate. 

A tiny, quiet voice in the back of his head screamed to remind him that Coraline wasn't very normal. 

For the most part, he was just hurt. Sure, making it obvious he was leaving her in the school parking lot was kind of a dickish thing to do, but in the moment he felt as if it would maybe reflect some of that betrayal onto her. The fallen look on her face when he started his engine made him feel guilty, but he reminded himself that she _deserved_ it. And that's what he kept telling himself when he got a vague text that night from her that said _'Fuck you'_ , and that's what he kept telling himself when he didn't respond to that, nor any of her other texts messages, and when she didn't show up to school for two days after. She didn't get to feel upset, he told himself. It was him who should be skipping school due to pure humiliation. Wybie really didn't appreciate the pats on the back he got while in the locker room. He also didn't appreciate the apparent open-aired discussion that had been granted for some reason. _"Dude, is her ass as cute naked as it is in a skirt?"_

If those subtle nuances didn't bother him enough, it wasn't until a night of trying to distract himself by playing Dungeons and Dragons with his friends while sipping cheap bourbon in his friend Gregory's basement, that the comments set him off. 

"Is she a corpse?" Asked one of the boys in the circle, Dale. "Or does she actually, like, moan? I'm imagining cute, amateur pornstar -" 

Wybie had risen suddenly and slammed his hands down on the table, startling the rest of the boys. He wasn't sure if it was because he was older than most of his classmates, or if he just wasn't a part of the normal teenage craze with sex, but the sudden obsession with what he did in the privacy of his own bedroom, especially concerning _Coraline_ , pissed him off beyond explanation. His voice was deep with anger, straining to get through clenched teeth. "Don't you guys have anything better to do than worry about what goes on between me and her?" 

"Dude, sorry, it isn't that big of a deal. We were just wondering -"  
"Well then wonder in silence!" He shouted, roughly pulling on his coat and snatching the keys to his bike from the nearby counter. He probably shouldn't be driving this late while tipsy, but the roads of their town were always empty after ten o' clock. "Now fuck off with that shit! I swear to god, if I hear one more comment from any of you idiots, I'll bash your fucking teeth in!" 

He stumbled out of the house, nostrils still flaring in anger, and hopped on his bike. He didn't really want to go home, especially when his grandmother would instantly smell the alcohol on his breath, so he opted for joy-riding the back roads. It was warm out, so the wind was pleasant against his curly mop of hair. His only real source of light was the small headlight attached to the front of his bike. If he wasn't only slightly drunk, the silence of the woods would have creeped him out since he was alone. Usually when he was out here, he was with Coraline, and her non-stop chatting usually took the edge off of the menacing woods. 

Upon thinking of her name, his jaw hardened, and he revved his engine in order to go faster down the bumpy dirt road. He was still angry; he was angry at her for lying, angry at the people who called themselves his friends and the entire student body. It was none of their business; nothing has ever been their business. For years, he and Coraline were snickered at for being the weird ones, and now suddenly they were being treated like they both mattered? 

His front tire skidded on the loose dirt of the path, launching him sideways onto the grass. It knocked the wind out of him, that was certain, but otherwise he was nothing more than a little sore. He sat up, flinching from the ache in his spine, looking at the tipped bike that lay in the middle of the road. Wybie swore, knowing that he was going to have to do some repair work on dents and scrapes that were surely there. The added weight of his sudden tumble, along with Coraline and his personal life, made him feel very small, angry, and pathetic. And like the little boy he felt like he was, Wybie began to cry.

 

 

/

 

 

If Coraline's parents noticed Wybie's absence, they didn't mention it. Mel Jones had a suspicion something was wrong, however, when she found her sixteen year old daughter sitting on their kitchen counter at three in the morning, eating vanilla pudding with a far away look on her face. She leaned against the frame of the kitchen, unnoticed, and crossed her arms. 

"Coraline."  
"Waugh!" Coraline shouted, crushing her pudding cup. It spilled over the rim and dripped onto her hand, causing her to groan and lick it off. Her mother cringed.  
"What are you doing up this late?" Mel asked, approaching her with a wet rag. Like a child, she cleaned her hands, wiping the pudding away. "You have school tomorrow."  
"I'm sick, I'm not going to school tomorrow." Her daughter mumbled, yanking her hand away in embarrassment. Her mother raised an eyebrow.  
"You're sick," she echoed, while pointing to the cup of pudding in Coraline's hand, "yet you're well enough to be sitting here at the ass crack of dawn with a snack." 

If something was going on with her, Coraline was stubborn enough not to say anything about it, because even under Mel's unwavering stare, she just looked off into the far corner and pretending her mother wasn't there. Sighing in frustration, Coraline's mother put her hands on her hips.  
"Look, Coraline, you don't have to tell me what's going on. It's just that you aren't very slick when you hide in your room for two days. Call me old and say that I couldn't possibly understand what's going on, but you are a big girl now, and I shouldn't have to hold your hand and beg you to tell me what's wrong. Don't want to fess up? Fine, but you are going to school if that's how it's gonna be. Stop running from your problems, Coraline, especially if you aren't going to let anybody help you with them."

Her daughter scrunched her nose in displeasure, but she was used to her mother's blunt way of putting things. She knew she didn't have much else of a choice at that point, and silently hopped off the counter and disappeared up the first floor steps. Mel didn't move from her position until she heard Coraline's door shut, to which she sagged against the kitchen counter and let out a puff of relief. She wondered if she was that bad when she was a teenager.

Coraline expected not to get much sleep, considering she now only had three hours to snooze, so she stayed awake and stared blankly at the ceiling. A muted _meow_ caught her attention. She sat up and saw her old friend, the Black Cat, graciously pawing at the window of her bedroom. She stood and let the cat in, watching as it trotted on her mattress and sat delicately in front of her. Coraline stared at him for a moment before sniffling a little bit, scratching him behind his ears, his purring providing her a comfort she felt like she hadn't felt in so long(even though it's been only a few days, but this was no time to point out that she was being dramatic). 

"Wybie must hate me, huh?" She spoke quietly, as to not risk gaining any extra attention from her parents. The cat stared up at her, obviously not knowing what she was saying, but enjoying the attention nonetheless. "I shouldn't have said what I did. I don't know how to make things right, Cat. He must think I'm a shitty person. And what he said meant he liked me, didn't it? If he said he wanted it to be me if he ever had sex with anyone?" 

The Black Cat peered up at her, as if to ask _what the hell are you talking about?_. Coraline laughed weakly at this. She knew he didn't understand her, but pretending he did made her feel a little bit better - a little less guilty. "I guess this means he doesn't wanna take me to prom, huh? Even though it's two weeks away. He'd have to rush to find another date, although that's fine. Not like I bought a dress or anything."

She wasn't very good at apologies, but she knew she had to do it eventually. She was going to see him at school that day, no doubt about it. Coraline slept for the last three hours fitfully, her feline companion watching from his side of her pillow during the entirety of it. 

 

\

 

Wybie sat in third period study hall, and it wasn't until nearly half way through that Coraline busted through the library doors, skinny, white legs decorated with funny yellow socks and maroon boots, polka dot overall shorts. As weird as she always was. The librarian gave her a snippy comment about being late, but she didn't seem to pay attention, clearly fidgeting and nervous. He watched as she looked his way, met his eyes for a brief moment, then walked over to random bookcase in the far corner of the room. He could see she was trying to act casual while failing miserably. He sort of wanted to take pity on her and make the first move.

 _No. She started this, so she can make the attempt to end it,_ said the voice in his head. It was enough to keep him glued to the couch.

As the period came to a close, she still lingered in the far corner. As students filed out for the lunch period, he was caught up in the back of the crowd. Suddenly he was yanked by the tail of his jacket to the floor, behind some books, just like they had been a few days prior. A small, cold hand had clamped itself over his mouth, successfully keeping him silent as the lights of the library turned off, leaving them in the dim light that the afternoon sun let through the windows. Only when they heard the doors shut and the librarian's heels click away did Coraline remove her hand, backing away from him to give him space. 

"Wha -"  
"I'm sorry!" Coraline shouted quickly. "I'm sorry, okay? I should've kept my mouth shut in the cafeteria and I shouldn't have let Andrew get under my skin like that, I shouldn't have lied about your sex life and it totally makes me a shitty person for taking the liberty of announcing stuff like that when it wasn't even true, and I shouldn't have acted like it wasn't a big deal because to you it totally _was_ and I deserve your anger, so it's fine if you wanna quit being my friend because if someone else abused my trust like that I wouldn't wanna be my friend either and I -"  
"Coraline," Wybie said, covering her mouth with his hand. "Shut up."  
She yanked his hand away, anger blazing in her irises, "What do you mean _'shut up'_?! I just fucking apologized to you, which was whole hearted and I never apologize to anybody! I spent the entire period, plus the time I spent hiding in the bathroom, thinking of what to say so you can't just -"  
"You hid in the bathroom?"  
"- tell me to shut up!"  
"Coraline, I love you." 

Coraline blinked rapidly, her mind processing what he just said. Stupidly, she wondered if him saying that meant he accepted her apology. She had never been in a relationship before, so she wasn't sure how to respond appropriately, so she opted for just staring at him like a deer in the headlights. She kind of wished she could redo this entire conversation so she could think ahead of time for a good response. Coraline feared accepting a new stage in their relationship would ruin everything. Couples did romantic stuff; all she could imagine was fancy dinner dates and long walks on the beach. What about movie nights? Would they have to kiss during the good parts? What about late-night slug hunting? If their parents knew, they couldn't have sleepovers anymore. Her face grew hot, _sleepovers_. Suddenly sex wasn't just sex, it was something that meant _Wybie_ and things like _penises_. Coraline never really thought of the two in the same sentence. Now she understood why he had been so upset when she lied to his friends.

The silence was eating away at him, so he stood rapidly in a flurry of embarrassment and tried to excuse himself. He was in the middle of muttering an apology when she pulled him back down again, his ass hitting the floor painfully. Coraline was clearly trying to formulate a response, seemingly attempting to pick between words and physical action. It was a slight distraction to the dull ache forming in his tailbone. 

"Can we talk about this later?" She said, and instantly regretted it. The crestfallen look on his face was like a slap in the face. Coraline was officially deemed the biggest dumbass on the planet, somebody get her a dunce cap.  
"I - well - sure, I guess," Was his response, "sure. Whenever you want."  
"Not that I don't - ! Not that I don't - I mean - not that I don't -"  
"It's okay, Coraline," Wybie tried to reason with her, placing his hands on her shoulders. She was really stumbling over herself.  
"I thought about kissing you!" Coraline blurted out. "And other stuff!"  
"You - you did? When did you - "

He was cut off by a hard kiss - physically hard. It kind of hurt. Coraline pulled away, her face very pink, eyes wide with panic. He wasn't sure what else to do, so Wybie cupped her face and gave her a gentler one, sighing when he finally felt her relax against him, her lips now soft and cushiony. Wybie pushed himself against her, lying her down on the floor of the library, one arm supporting itself near her head, while the other cupped her cheek, then caressed her neck, then her shoulder, but never lower. 

Coraline half expected him to touch her boobs. She wasn't sure what she would have done if that had happened, because touching boobs usually lead to sex, and they were still in the school library. She also wasn't very sure of what she was doing, kissing him, and liked herself to a fish out of water, opening and closing her mouth, trying to copy whatever he was doing. For a first kiss, Coraline thought of all the movies and books that said it was electrifying and arousing. She used to think it was all amplified garbage, but experiencing it first hand made her head spin. It was like she was on a completely different planet, and the only people to exist on it were her and Wybie, making out on its surface, grossly inexperienced. She felt like she should have done something with her arms, at least, because she was lying there like a dead person, and she did _not_ want to be compared to a dead person. Timidly, she wrapped her arms around his neck, exploring the expanse of his upper back and shoulders. 

The lights of the library awakened them rudely from their stupor. Wybie flung himself away from her, one hand on his forehead as if to steady himself. Coraline sat up slowly, dazed, listening to the fourth period bell ring, as well as the students walking in for their next period class. Her face still felt warm, her lips fuzzy, like the skin of peaches. 

Coraline went throughout the rest of her day hardly paying attention to anything, only the buzz Wybie had left behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was so sloppy im so srry :-( anyways I hoped u enjoyed xxxxxx


	9. Chapter 9

"Coraline! Aunt Joad is here!" 

Her reflection groaned miserably in the mirror. She picked at the wrinkled, white dress - she never wore white, she thought it was boring - and decided it looked entirely too frumpy on her. Next to her door sat dainty little white high heels, which Coraline remembered emphasizing to her mother that it was a terrible idea to where heels in the dirt. Not that she ever wanted to wear heels, but now it was going to be _worse_ , she was probably going to look like a baby deer taking its first steps, trying to navigate the soil with spiky prongs of death on her feet. And why did everything have to be white? 

Coraline's eyes drifted to her sock drawer, then to the wretched heels, before grinning evilly.

 

/ 

 

"What on earth are you wearing?!" Mel cried in horror. On her daughter's feet, multicolored fuzzy socks covered the toes that were supposed to be pedicured and pretty, entirely ruining the point of wearing heels with a matching dress. 

"What?" Coraline asked innocently. Mel felt herself get red in the face; they were late for her cousin's wedding already, and arguing with her daughter would only delay them further. She heard Wybie cackle beside her. He looked just as out of place as her daughter did now, but they were graciously offered an extra seat, and she decided that having somebody keep her daughter company was something that'd benefit everyone involved.   
"You are so dead," Mel grouched at her, "you two better get going before I rip those socks off, Coraline, or so help me God." 

And so Coraline swaggered out of the house, towards Wybie's bike, smugly smiling the entire time. Wybie held in his laughter until they were outside, where he fully allowed giggles to spill from in between his lips, watching her as she strut ridiculously with her fuzzy socks. He hadn't wanted to go to the wedding, but it meant spending more time with Coraline and taking part in her antics. 

"Did you do it?" She asked him. He nodded, copied her grin, and lifted the legs his pants, revealing the multicolored, multi-patterned socks. She had texted him the night before, stressing that he wore the most mismatched, colorful socks he could find. Now, they were truly a pair. Wybie swung his legs over his bike, Coraline following suit, both of their socks a stark contrast against their monochrome outfits. Mel Jones stepped out onto the front porch, her eyes immediately catching both of their socks, but Wybie sped away before she could get another word out.

That didn't stop her from yelling at the spot they'd just been, though. 

/

"And do you, Angela, take Hubert do be your lawfully wedding husband?"

"I do."

They had all been seated outside, in a gorgeous(and not to forget enormous) outdoor botanical garden that served as the wedding venue. It was a muggy day in May, and the flowers attracted bees, leaving most of the wedding party swatting at the air during the exchange of vows. Coraline rolled her eyes, mouthing the words the bride, groom, and officiator were saying, making Wybie snickered quietly behind his hand. Mel shot them both a glare, thinking _maybe I shouldn't have let them come together_ , because lord knows what shenanigans Coraline would rope her companion into.

"- you may now kiss the bride!" 

The crowd cheered and whooped, watching the couple share their first kiss as newlyweds. This allowed the perfect cover for Wybie and Coraline to slip away, easing easily from their seats, disappearing into the gardens. They hadn't told Coraline's parents about their newfound relationship - or anybody, for that matter, unless they asked outright - so they needn't worry about prompting worry from her mother in particular. The two had zigzagged around bushes and shrubs, archways and rocks, before Wybie promptly pressed Coraline against the bark of tree, confident that they were both far enough from the wedding-goers for privacy. 

His lips were upon hers in an instant, making her positively dizzy. Her arms wrapped around the broadness of his shoulders, grappling onto them for support, while his hands fumbled over her waist, bunching up the skirt of her dress as he pressed himself against her. Wybie nearly had her off the ground, she was dangling on her tiptoes at this point. His head ducked to kiss the skin of her throat, causing her to hum in response. 

"You may now kiss the bride," Wybie snorted against her skin. It vibrated and tickled, "what a stupid thing to say. They've probably been in this very position a thousand times."  
She laughed, letting her fingers wander up to his hair, combing through the dark curls. "What? Snogging up against a tree?"   
"At someone else's _wedding_ , yeah," He responded curtly. 

"Coraline! Wybie! We're switching venues!"

Mel Jones's call echoed throughout the garden. Wybie took a step back, taking a moment to admire his beau, her lips swollen and her hair mussed. He grinned and took her hand, leading the two of them back to regroup with Coraline's family. 

Coraline snorted as they went back. The rest of the family seemed so eager to get to the dance hall, but little did they know, she spiked the punch bowl.


End file.
